Healthcare industry

Boehringer Ingelheim has recently officially opened a new kilo laboratory in Biberach. The laboratory produces pharmaceutically active substances for use in pharmaceutical development toxicity testing and the early clinical development.

The German Cancer Research Centre and Bayer Schering Pharma AG signed an agreement to establish a strategic research alliance. The partners will invest a total of 3.5 million euros in cooperative cancer research over the next two years.

Three of the four scientists from the University of Ulm who have been awarded the 27th Merckle Research Prize are in the field of life sciences. The prizes, each with a purse of 5,000 euros, were awarded to Richard Schlenk, Bernd Baumann and Dirk Volkmer.

Staying healthy as you get older that is probably what many people would wish for. As part of the European research network LifeSpan 130 scientists are now looking into how to make this wish come true. Prof. Dr. Graham Pawelec from the University Hospital of Tübingen UKT is one of the 130 scientists and his principal focus is immunological ageing processes.

Press release - 04/12/2008

A strong woman, major success and a new path

This years Science meets Business Day held by the German BioValley Platform was very special. The 2nd December 2008 in the Freiburg Concert Hall marked the end of an era. It was Dr. Thea Siegenführs last public appearance. Dr. Siegenführ has shaped and skilfully organised the biotechnology landscape at the Upper Rhine for the last 16 years.

Press release - 04/12/2008

Leibniz Awards for two Ulm University professors

Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchhoff Institute of Virology and Prof. Dr. Karl Lenhard Rudolph Institute of Molecular Medicine from the University of Ulm have received two of the German Research Foundations eleven Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme awards.

The actual age of a person not only depends on the date he or she was born. Biological age, which is far more important in determining lifespan, can so far only be estimated rather than precisely calculated. The European MARK-AGE research project is working on finding a solution to this problem. Esslingen plays a major role in this project for two reasons: the structure of the city and the company BioTeSys.

Article - 02/12/2008

Cancer cells do not like rocket salad

Isothiocyanates which are substances found in vegetables such as rocket kohlrabi or mustard promote good health. Dr. Evelyn Lamy and her team at the Freiburg University Hospital found out that isothiocyanates lead to considerably fewer DNA strand breaks.

Article - 29/11/2008

The worm in humans

Caenorhabditis elegans has a lifespan of 20 days. The worm is as small as a comma and consists of only 959 cells. Caenorhabditis elegans is very different from Homo sapiens who might at least in Germany live for as long as 79 years or more. Nevertheless the tiny worm is the most important model organism for researchers into ageing who use it to study the development of age-related diseases and the ageing process itself.

Prof. Dr. Lenhard Rudolph a well-known stem cell researcher at Ulm University is investigating the relationships between telomeres stem cell ageing and diseases. In the following interview with Walter Pytlik BioRegion Ulm Rudolph gives insights into state-of-the-art ageing research and its potential applications.

Dr. Pitter Huesgen Dr. Michael Strerath and Dr. Carl Kübler have been awarded this years Nycomed Award. The Award which is worth a total of 15000 distinguishes outstanding doctoral theses in the fields of biology chemistry and physics.

Karin Scharffetter-Kochanek dermatologist and head of the Department of Dermatology and Allergology at the University Hospital of Ulm has spent a long time investigating skin ageing. Her specific focus on skin has not however restricted her understanding of ageing to barely deterministic or mechanistic details. Quite the opposite is true.

On 20th November 2008 Tetec AG opened a new facility for the production of cartilage transplants. The company market leader and a subsidiary of B. Braun Melsungen AG based in Reutlingen is expanding its production capacities.

The company empire of the Ulm-based billionaire Adolf Merckle stung by losses on Volkswagen shares is apparently preparing for the loss of the generic drug manufacturer ratiopharm. This seems to be the implication of a ratiopharm press release following a staff meeting.

Schölly Fiberoptic GmbH based in the city of Denzlingen in the south of Germany has experienced rapid growth over the last few years with its endoscopic solutions. Over the last five years the company has doubled its revenues to 44 million euros per year.

Certain wavelengths of light encode vital information about the plants environment. Dr. Andreas Hiltbrunner an his team from the University of Freiburg has recently shown how phytochrome A transmits this information into the cell.

Professor Giovanni Galizia from Constance is investigating the processing of odour cues. Together with other scientists Galizia has initiated a DFG research priority on olfactory processing in humans and animals.

Dossier - 20/11/2008

Anti-Ageing is still a far-off dream

Is it possible to halt the ageing process? This question was first raised in the 1980s when researchers succeeded in delaying the ageing process in threadworms by modifying a specific gene. Nowadays hundreds of gene mutations are known to prolong the lifespan of yeast fruit flies and mice. Will the human dream of eternal youth eventually become reality? The truth is probably not.

It runs and runs and is extremely successful The SFB 592 established in 2001 and entitled Signalling mechanisms in embryogenesis and organogenesis investigates the biological functions of different signalling pathways. Since its foundation the scientists of the SFB have published many excellent papers in highly renowned journals. Their work has been of such a high standard that the German Research Foundation DFG has decided to fund the…

Karen Grave-Hermann and Dr. Robert Hermann founded cr.applications in 2003. The two specialists who have wide-ranging experience in drug development talked to Michael Statnik about current trends in their field and about the development of the German biotech sector.

The 14th annual edition of BIO-Europe which toke place in Mannheim strengthened its claim to being the worlds largest stand-alone partnering event with the participation of 1250 biotech pharma and professional service organizationsa and 190 company presentations.

Researchers from Heidelberg have discovered that certain oxygen compounds are produced in greater quantities in the body due to cancer or inflammation and that this leads to the alteration of a protein that controls the flexibility and adaptability of certain immune cells.

There are only a few signalling pathways that have been as well conserved during evolution as the Notch signalling pathway. This is due to the pathways unique biological function. Notch enables two identical cells to develop into completely different tissues. Anette Preiß professor at the University of Hohenheim has been working on the function of the Notch signalling pathway for almost 20 years.

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg have developed a software programme RepliExplore that enables the construction of individualised models for use in complicated surgical interventions.

Despite the worldwide financial crisis the majority of German medical device manufacturers do not anticipate high revenue losses up until the end of 2009. The medical technology association SPECTARIS anticipates a revenue increase of around 5 to 18.2 billion euros for 2008 and a growth of 2- 3 for 2009.